


there is a softer story for us, lover

by HaroThar



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Bottom Alucard, Canon Divergence - Castlevania (Cartoon) Season 3, Dom/sub Undertones, Female Masturbation, Fix-It, Frottage, Healing, Multi, Past Sexual Abuse, Polyamory, Retelling, Sex No Murder, Teacher-Student Relationship, Threesome - F/M/M, of a sort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:00:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23201338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaroThar/pseuds/HaroThar
Summary: A retelling of Castlevania's third season, centering on Alucard, Taka, and Sumi. Largely canon compliant with alterations, and an obviously different ending.Or: AU where they're poly and happy together and actually in love.
Relationships: Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Sumi/Taka
Comments: 42
Kudos: 193





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am REVOKING Castlevania staff's pretty sadboy license, they are now allotted one and only one pretty sadboy and that is Hector. ALL other pretty sadboys can should will and MUST be made happy IMMEDIATELY.

They came into his life so naturally. A rough start, certainly, but like Taka had said: despite the injuries Alucard had caused, it had been a good day. Alucard was given purpose, once again, in the form of teaching these two, training them. And he had been given company, something he had obviously, sorely missed.

“Don’t look at those,” Alucard said, embarrassed, with three glasses and a bottle of wine. He didn’t know if they drank, but he would gladly offer something else to fill their cups, if needed.

“Sumi. Taka.” It was strange, to say another person’s name and have them smile, nod, respond. Had he truly been alone for so long? It felt like only a few months, but those few months had stretched on, on and on. 

He asked them about their story, where they came from and why they fought. They told him, and while they spared gorier details, Alucard _had_ seen vampires before. His father had been a gentleman, during his mother’s life, but other vampires were not so kind, nor restrained.

He… _pitied_ was the wrong word. He did not pity these brave, strong people. But some piece of him ached for them. Perhaps compassion was the word he was looking for? That he knew that had endured so much, and fought so hard. But he admired them, too, for the strength they possessed. That they continued to endure, that they wanted to fight.

“We need a friend, Alucard,” Sumi said, and it struck the aching, lonely, hurting thing in his chest with far greater precision than Taka’s arrows would ever manage. 

He took a sip from his wine, bracing himself. “You need instruction,” he stated, rejecting that aching part, rejecting it before it could spread its hopeful wings and run away with him again, “Perhaps one or two new weapons.” And then, because while he knew he could not be the kind of friend that connected (and oh, how he’d learned that lesson, how fate had needed to teach it to him far too many times before it stuck), he wanted to be the kind of person that they might like, as they were passing through, he said, “Maybe learn a little magic?”

He was rewarded by their interest, and the aching thing in him encouraged him to pursue this, to please them, to please them by any means necessary. 

He clamped down on it. They would leave. He was only there to give them tools, to give them knowledge. Or, more like, they were only here, for such.

But still. It made him happy, to see them happy. It… revitalized him, in some small way, to see them eager.

\--

Breakfast with them was like breakfast with Sypha and Trevor; mostly just the consumption of food, but with the small comfort that eating in company provides. It was a trial, afterwards, to convince Taka to leave behind his bow, but a minor one, and while Alucard knew he did not read people well, he was fairly certain most of Taka’s complaints were playful, anyways. So maybe not such a trial, after all.

His blade was long, he knew this. He did not float it, for them, because that was not something they would need practice with. They needed to read the motions of a faster, stronger opponent. They needed to become familiar taking on odd positions with unknown foes.

At first, he was half inclined to wonder if Sumi wasn’t taking the sparring seriously, laughing and nearly… dancing with her blade. But she fought well. 

Perhaps it was not often, that she was able to fight without stakes. Perhaps this was the most fun with a blade that she’d had in a long, long while. Alucard would not be lying if he were to admit that he enjoyed it, himself. Taka and Sumi stayed aware of each other, also, making the briefest of eye contact while Alucard dodged back and nodding to each other, a blink and miss it moment.

“Why is your sword so long? I can’t get close,” Sumi asked, rushing him again.

“You don’t want to get close,” Alucard stated, allowing her in, and baring his fangs, hissing just slightly. “That’s where the fangs and claws are,” he reminded after pushing her back and disarming her deftly, then he whirled and caught Taka’s sword against his own. “I doubt I need to inform you of the dangers of those.”

“That’s why I have a bow and arrows!” Taka reminded, and his expression was so--his tone was--it struck Alucard as funny. He did not necessarily doubt that they were listening to him, but there was a levity there, one he was not experienced with.

His inexperience caught him in the back of the leg, and while he reoriented, reminded of the danger Sumi still posed while unarmed (she was smiling), Taka took up her blade from where it stuck in the dirt. 

“Get him Sumi!” Taka called, and Alucard was certain he wasn’t misunderstanding this. He allowed himself to be tackled to the ground, laughing, because they came to him to learn, but they came to him for friendship, too. And he no longer disbelieved that.

“You have both just been eaten by vampires,” Alucard informed them, mock-scholarly, like the tone his mother used when she caught him in wiggling fingers and told him of his demise at the hands of a tickle monster, _so_ serious over his giggling.

“No, we captured him and made him our slave,” Sumi said, in that same matter of fact tone. For a moment, he was surprised, that they would joke so casually on something that had been their lives and torment for years, but of course they did. 

The human capacity to survive, heal, and move on was incredible.

“Make lunch now,” she ordered, and he laughed, half humor, half awe. 

He told them how he admired them, perhaps with the wrong words, but with a smile that felt long-forgotten. They remembered something he’d forgotten. Perhaps, they could all learn something, while they were here.

They continued to tease him, and he continued to play along, lifting Sumi on his back (she was so warm)(When was the last time someone had touched him like this? When was the last time someone had bothered to get close? Had Sypha? Trevor hadn’t, obviously, his camaraderie was different in every aspect, but Alucard… could not remember). He took them home, promising to raid his father’s armory--and how long had he avoided that part of the castle? How long had he avoided all parts of the castle save the ones he needed use of?

But first, he would cook for them.

It was nice, having someone to cook for.

\--

The three of them realized much later that they had forgotten all three scabbards out in the woods. Alucard, at Taka’s pleading and Sumi once again teasing him about being their slave, had gone to fetch them.

He liked it, when she bossed him around. He liked it when Taka asked for things. Sumi reminded him a little of Sypha. The two of them would get along well. Taka was altogether different, to him, playful and serious, diligent and complaining, curious and hesitant.

Alucard didn’t know what his feelings were doing. So he ignored them, for the time being. A pot on a backburner surely wouldn’t boil, would it?

“Here,” Alucard said, handing over the scabbards, and a book. “This details the framework for basic combative spellcasting. It is a good place to start. You can read this language?”

“We can,” Sumi confirmed, leaning on Taka’s shoulder as he took it from Alucard’s hands, flipping to the first page.

“While you two do that, I’m going to do laundry. It’s a hateful chore, so I use my dhampir speed for it: will you give me your clothes to wash?”

“You hate it, but you offer to do our portion of it?” Taka asked, one notched eyebrow raised, Sumi also looking skeptical.

“Yes, it goes faster when I am the one doing it, and you two have that to concern yourselves with.” Alucard tapped one long nail against the top of the book, carefully keeping his claw away from Taka’s hands.

They stared at him a long moment, and he could not begin to guess what that meant.

“Thank you,” Sumi said eventually, sharing another one of those half-second glances with Taka. 

“Of course,” Alucard said quietly, still a little confused. “Please, wear anything you find in the closets or bureaus in the meantime. Ideally they’ve not gotten too dusty.”

He tried not to overthink it, at the river with his soap and washboard. He tried not to let his mind linger on how the two of them had smiled at him, or why doing this for them made him feel so pleased.

\--

His father’s armory had been mutually disappointing for all three of them, all the interesting pieces picked off by the members of Dracula’s court and the vampire thralls. Still, it had given them enough for Alucard to get a good idea of what he was working with, Taka crowing about the return of his arrows and Sumi showing prowess with every type of blade save the longsword.

Then they’d gotten into rudimentary spellcasting and that had taken up the better part of a week, Taka positively flourishing in the discipline while Sumi struggled. However, when Alucard skipped ahead at their repeated complaints at how none of Dracula’s weapons were enchanted, Sumi had shown her innate magic in bewitching her weapons. Three daggers, one of sunlight, one of moonlight, one of carefully spun shadows, rested on her thighs and calf, and she had intentions to steal away to a forge and craft one of flame sometime when the weather did not permit their outdoor practice. 

But on that particularly early morning, as Taka so helpfully complained about, Alucard was leading them down to the Belmont hold, hoping to excite them. (And perhaps, to distract them from the melted machinery that moved the castle, and reminded him each instance of the fact that they too, one day, would move, would leave). Alucard wanted to excite them, wanted to share everything he could if it meant seeing them smile with curious glee, like they had before.

“I thought we were going to look at the rest of the armory today. If it is in fact today,” Taka complained. 

“Taka isn’t good at mornings. And this is some _extra_ morning,” Sumi joined, and Alucard wondered briefly if he _had_ gotten them up too early, if even Sumi was complaining.

“It is _so_ much morning that it is actually still yesterday.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have stayed up so late exploring the castle,” Alucard chided gently, a pang of guilt stealing away the levity he might have otherwise put in it.

“We wanted to see the engine that moved the castle. Can it ever be fixed?” Sumi asked.

“Maybe,” Alucard said, wanting desperately to change the subject. “But it would take a very long time, and there are other things to do,” he said, and it was true. To repair something like that--they’d need to replace it, piece by individual piece, rebuild it almost entirely. Sypha’s magic was strong.

“What could be more important than that?” Taka asked, and Alucard wished they would be distracted by the ruins they were approaching, the lift he was leading them onto. 

“So many things,” Alucard answered vaguely, wanting this conversation done with. “I’m not going anywhere, Taka,” he stated, wishing for firmness. “The castle’s moved for the last time. I have places to guard.”

He was satisfied when, after lowering the hatch, he found their faces curious, observant, distracted from the castle and that awful mechanism at last. The Belmont hold was, after all, worth guarding for a reason. 

He turned on the lights and watched, silently delighted, as they rushed forward, observing it all.

“Magic lanterns!” Sumi said. The joy in her tone pleased Alucard as though she’d praised him directly.

“Lightning, not magic,” Alucard corrected gently, observing them from ten steps separated.

“You put lightning into lanterns and tell us it’s not magic?” Taka asked, and Alucard approached.

“It’s really not. The Parthians were storing lightning in jars two hundred years before Christ.”

He told them of the Belmonts. Of their purpose, of their legacy. He showed them the rest of his armoury, as the hold was now technically his, and the weapons the Belmonts had collected. He tried to soothe their worries, reassure them that although the odds were stacked against them, he would help, but help came with practice, starting small, and knowing one’s own limits. 

He thought on Trevor. It was impossible not to. He liked to think that Trevor Belmont would approve that he was teaching a new generation of monster hunters, and using his family’s knowledge to do so.

He thought on the last time Trevor had been here, and Sypha. He did not make the mistake of looking, once again, at the skulls of vampires slain in the past, though he heard when Taka and Sumi stooped before the glass case. He ran his fingers over the spines of the books he’d looked at, and allowed himself to miss his friends.

Cold. A well of ice. Sypha had called him that, when they were here, thinking he could not hear her.

He knew she was right. The warmth he felt, for her, for Trevor, for Taka and Sumi now--it was not a warmth that humans could feel. Maybe not vampires either. He was a dhampir, toeing a line between two worlds, two cultures, two ways of being. It would make sense, then, that he should belong fully to neither one, his traits a mix of both that were palatable to neither.

He selected a few books for Taka and Sumi, keeping his choices few in number, due to the zelous aspirations of their own choosing, and carried the stacks while they brought up the weapons they found interesting. He knew they would not keep all of them--some of these would lose their novelty, and others would prove more useful to the two than the rest, and those deemed ill-fitting would be returned to this hold. He could not touch all of them directly, himself. There was a small pile of silver that he did not get close to.

He did not rush them. But he found himself wanting to leave far earlier than they did.

\--

He found the silver cuffs when he was rooting through their packs, looking for their nightclothes so he might wash them. The back of his hand brushed against one of them and it burned, though it was more of a shock than anything. Carefully, he dumped out the pack, and found the cuff’s mate.

He recognized them. He wondered if Sumi and Taka knew what they did, when activated. Taka would have no trouble with them, quick as he was with spellcasting. For all his complaints about how “all this reading” made his brain hurt, he devoured the books, and in battle he was rapidly, almost stunningly improving. (If Sypha were here, what would she teach him? Her spellcasting was limited in variety, but powerful in strength. Taka could learn from her, better than Alucard.)

He stared at the cuffs a long moment, wondering first and foremost what it was he was even contemplating. Did it bother him, that they had these?

They had all manner of silver weapons, borrowed from the Belmont hold, so, no, not really.

Was he worried they might use these on him?

He stared at them a moment longer.

No, no, they liked him. Surely he could not misread so badly as all that. Sumi liked to curl against him on the couch with a book in her lap, labeling him more comfortable than the armrest. Taka would steal bits of the food before it was done cooking, claiming Alucard too good of a chef for him to be able to wait. Sumi pulled and tugged and combed through his hair with her fingers, sometimes leading him along by it, sometimes simply grabbing his attention. Taka would drag him by the hand, knowing that if Alucard were to plant his heels he risked slicing Taka’s hand open with his claws, and therefore confident that Alucard could be dragged without threat of resistance.

Alucard wasn’t used to people _touching_ him like this. He wasn’t used to having people in his space for reasons other than necessity or aggression. He tried to keep his distance, tried to remain on the edge of whatever sphere the two of them occupied, but they did not let him, their warm hands and shoulders insistent on getting close to him, to his cold skin, his sharp fangs.

If they were to use these cuffs on him, it would be provoked, and he would deserve it. Carefully, using the fabric of their bags to guard his skin, he placed the cuffs back inside.

He caught them on their way down to the Belmont hold, which he had no desire to return to, but which they must explore again, having made their ravenous way through the stacks of books they’d collected.

“I could not find your nightclothes,” he informed them, laundry held in both arms since his hips were not particularly serviceable.

“We…” Taka started, once again sharing a look with Sumi that Alucard could not decipher or understand, “do not have any.”

Hm. No wonder their bedsheets were so dirty.

“If you want, you can borrow mine. I have a few,” Alucard offered, and again, he did not know what to make of how they looked at him. He stared back, expression blank. They’re so beautiful, he thought, unbidden, and pushed that thought away.

“Sure,” Sumi said, and Alucard left them to their business, while he attended his.

\--

“Are you sure the castle can’t be moved?” Taka asked, and Alucard felt his muscles tense, the little bead of sweat start to form. He hated this conversation, and he hated how often they had it.

“Yes, Taka.”

“And there’s not something you’re not telling us?”

“No,” Alucard responded immediately, then stopped, sighed, ran his hand over his face.

He heard, maybe _felt_ , Taka and Sumi share another look behind his back.

“Theoretically, yes, it can be moved. In _theory,_ we could forge new gears, build new pieces to replace the ruined ones. But it would take…” Alucard gestured vaguely, “A year? Of constant, non-stop work. No sparring, no magic except the kind necessary for building and enchanting, very little time for cooking or studying. I am not my father. I do not have his thralls, nor do I want any. And I have not extensively surveyed the damage Sypha did when she pinned the castle here, I don’t know if the mechanisms I think are repairable actually _are_ or if I would have to rebuild everything from the ground up. It took my father many, many hands, and years of careful planning and construction. On our own? I have no idea.”

He looked at Taka imploringly, wanting him to understand, _willing_ him to understand. “I know you want to return home swiftly.” He looked to Sumi, praying she might understand him. “I am not attempting to hinder you. But this castle is done moving, and will not move again. I’m sorry.”

He tried to keep his space from them, but they always had other ideas. Sumi closed the two long strides between them and gripped Alucard’s hand, staring at him with such frank intensity he wanted to look away.

“And if you do survey it? If you catalogue what can be repaired and what must be rebuilt? If we three could, theoretically, fix it within a year of nonstop work?”

Alucard opened his mouth, but no sound came out, no words came forth. 

“Alucard,” Taka said, taking his other hand. “The journey here was treacherous. Many people sought to harm us, and many others wanted to take advantage of two strange and inexperienced people on their own. It took us a month to spring our attack, after Dracula summoned Cho, but from that day, we were travelling, coming here.” 

“A year in this castle with you would be a kinder thing than a year on roads and boats surrounded by strangers,” Sumi told him earnestly, and once again her words lanced him where he _ached,_ her simple “with you” threatening the integrity of his knees. “We can learn from you, study under you, train with you, just the same as we already plan to. And then the three of us can fix the engine, and you can go to Japan and back without leaving your Belmont ward unprotected too long.”

Alucard’s mouth felt exceptionally dry. They would stay. They would stay, that whole while, and he could have them here for that much longer. “And if it threatens to take longer than a year? If I miscalculate, and it takes more than I had guessed?” 

Sumi and Taka smiled at him, and his will crumbled entirely. “We can spare the added time.”

“I doubt you miscalculating would be worse than a ship getting lost at sea,” Taka added, sharing that smile with Sumi, then turning it blindingly back on Alucard.

“...If it must be rebuilt entirely?” Alucard asked, voice small.

“Worry with that if it is true,” Sumi urged him.

Alucard nodded. “I will survey it properly,” he promised, and for the first time he prayed that Sypha had not destroyed it as thoroughly as he had assumed.

\--

“Why do we never go that way?” Taka asked, and Alucard flinched. He sighed. 

“I prefer not to.”

“Why?” Sumi asked, also staring at the wing of the castle Alucard left deliberately, pointedly untouched. _That_ wing of the castle.

“Are you sure you’re not hiding things from us?” Taka asked, and his tone was joking, but even Alucard could hear the edge underneath it.

“I am not _hiding_ things from you, Taka,” Alucard said tiredly.

“So why do you not let us go there?”

“Oh!” Alucard startled, realizing the misunderstanding. _”You_ can. I am the one who prefers not to go there.”

They were _looking_ at him again. He bore their scrutiny (if scrutiny was even what it was).

“Why?” Sumi asked again, sending Taka a harsher momentary glance than normal. Alucard did not attempt to parse it.

“It is painful,” Alucard said, and the hurt rose in his throat, strangling his words to a whisper and stinging at his eyes. “So I will ask that if you go there: do not question me about it. Do not speak of what you saw where I can hear you. Draw whatever conclusions you will from what you see there, but leave me be. That place--” his mother, his father, his _father,_ “--haunts me.”

Another shared look, another closing of the distance and their hands inside his own.

“Do you need us, for the survey?” Sumi asked.

“I do not.”

“Then we will go now.”

“And we will not speak of it, after,” Taka promised. Alucard nodded, squeezing their hands very gently, and left them standing at the staircase’s base, not wanting to think on where they were going, or what they would find.

He focused, very deliberately, on the engine of the castle, comparing it to his father’s blueprints, the meticulously drawn artwork, the written dimensions of each cog and piece. He wrote down each broken piece, what could be repaired, what needed replaced, their locations, their parameters. He filled an empty book with the work that needed done, and it was dark when he finally left the cavernous room.

He stared up at the moonlight and knew dawn was not far off. “It is late into the night,” he murmured, “So late that it is actually tomorrow.” A private joke to himself. He would do the calculations in the morning. He would sleep first and come at this with a sharp mind, and be honest with these two when he told them how long it might take.

So much of him wanted to lie, if it were to take longer than a year. To tell them a low estimate so they would agree to stay, and trap them.

But he would not trap them.

He would miss them more, after finishing their training, after repairing the engine. He would find it even harder to let them go then, than he found the concept now. But he would not trap them.

They were noble. They had a purpose, in Japan. He would miss them. He would sew their names into dolls and place them next to Sypha and Trevor, so he would not forget them. But he would not trap them here, in this dead place, its broken halls and its empty hold. This was his; Japan was theirs, and he would return them to it with the swiftest route.

“I really should get myself a coffin,” he murmured on the bed, exhausted but unable to sleep unless he was on his back, arms crossed over his chest, heartbeat faint through his nightgown.

\--

Alucard was delighted. Allowing an extra two months for things to go wrong (which they inevitably would, at some point), reparations of the engine would take a year and a half. He could give them this information honestly, show them the work he’d done to reach that conclusion and take the first step to teach them. They would stay for their training, and they would stay for rebuilding. He was cooking eggs from a robin’s nest he’d ransacked. He was making plans for winter, when vegetation would be sparse. He hadn’t been this happy since his mother was still alive.

He heard their footsteps, not currently silent and careful of vampire ears, and although he knew they were rushing, he was still somehow surprised when the two of them collided into him, arms around his waist, neither slowing in their approach, a face pressed into each shoulder.

“Sumi? Taka?” Alucard asked, alarmed and confused, but not quite afraid just yet.

“I am sorry I doubted you,” Taka stated, and Alucard placed his hands hesitantly upon their backs, mindful of his claws.

“I--is everything alright?”

Sumi took a deep breath and released him, Taka following her lead. “Yes, Alucard,” she said, placing her palm against his cheek. “Everything is fine. What did you learn of the engine?”

Alucard smiled, deciding to shake whatever had just happened. He’d asked them not to speak of what they saw, in _that_ wing, so if this was them honoring that vow, he would drop the matter.

“Allowing for contingencies, a year and a half of hard work. Two if Taka would like to take the mornings off.”

“Hey!” Taka protested, elbowing Alucard, who chuckled. 

“Really?” Sumi asked, eyes alight, and the special delight that came with pleasing her, with pleasing both of them, sparkled in Alucard again. 

“I can show you my work, if you like,” Alucard said, gesturing at the tome on the table. “But first, breakfast, I think.”

They ate, Alucard pleased to see them acting normally again, the strangeness of their entrance pushed firmly away. He had asked for their silence, and they had given it to him.

They felt nice, the two of them pressed up against his body like that, their arms around him.

He pushed _that_ thought away even more firmly, displeased with how often such things flitted through his mind. He finished eating and pulled his workbook forward. They paid close attention, Alucard ever-aware of how casually they leaned on his shoulders, their faces close to his own. 

“Allowing for contingencies, that equals out to a year and a half,” Alucard finished, showing the line of numbers he’d added together.

“We plan two months for things to go wrong?” Taka asked, sounding unbothered but skeptical.

“Things always go wrong,” Alucard stated with full certainty, “Nothing ever goes precisely how you planned it, especially the first time.”

“I imagine some things must, given that things going wrong would make you dead. Things that had to go right, or you wouldn’t be here.”

“Like killing Dracula?” Alucard asked, knowing they were thinking it.

“I wasn’t going to say anything about it, but,” Sumi started, sharing another look with Taka.

“You _are_ here,” he continued for her, “And we are glad of that fact.”

Alucard found his hands in theirs once again, and he leaned back against his chair.

“I am here,” he agreed, “but even killing Dracula went wrong, the first time I tried it. The scar on my chest,” he lifted Sumi’s hand in his and tapped a claw against the mark, the portion of it visible through his neckline, “this ugly thing, is from when my father nearly killed me.”

“How did you survive?” Sumi asked.

“I am a dhampir, most human means of killing me don’t work all the way. The year my father spent amassing his army, I spent in a coffin. A little more.”

“You were trapped in a coffin for a _year?”_ Taka asked, his voice soft. Maybe pitying.

“To be fair, I was near death and unaware for most of it. When I had regained enough strength for consciousness, it was about then that Sypha and Trevor freed me.”

“The dolls,” Sumi murmured, staring at the empty shelf where Alucard had initially kept them.

“My friends.” Alucard squeezed their hands gently. “Sumi. Taka. The worst battles are the ones we fight alone.”

“We know, Alucard,” Sumi said, pulling her hand away only to hug him, again.

Taka once again followed her lead. “And we are not alone.”

\--

It was not the next night, nor the night after, but the night after that one, that Alucard lied awake in his bed, once again muttering to himself about how he should really just cave in and get a coffin. He could put it next to the bed, so that when he petulantly continued to try to sleep in the bed (and he knew he would continue to do so for a while) he wouldn’t have to move far to get into the casket. 

He rolled onto his back and crossed his arms, aware that he was sulking but not caring because it wasn’t like anyone could see him. Then the door cracked open, pale moonlight haloing the silhouettes. 

“What’s wrong?” Alucard asked, sitting immediately. Taka and Sumi were wearing the nightgowns he’d leant him, and his mind flickered to how nice they looked, in his clothing, how the long stretch of their legs were not things he’d seen before. He shoved that thought away, just as he had every time Sumi’s grin or Taka’s laughter had made his mind wander to thoughts of their beauty. He had no right to think such things, and now was hardly the time.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Taka said, hand caressing the tall bedpost, other hand hanging loose at his side.

“Everything is fine,” Sumi continued, settling her weight onto Alucard’s mattress, his traitor-brain helpfully supplying how close her fingers were to his hip. He glanced between them, confused, and then down at his own chest when they settled their palms atop it.

“You’ve been so alone,” Taka said, and Alucard didn’t _understand._ But they were smiling at him, so close (was that his heartbeat he could hear, racing like this?).

“It’s time for your reward,” Sumi said, and it clicked, at last.

“Oh,” Alucard breathed, allowing himself to be pushed down onto the mattress, staring up at them with wide eyes. Was this--a dream? He hadn’t known of any vampires having extraordinarily lucid dreams that were also plays of their greatest fantasies, but each vampire _was_ a little different from the next. And he was a dhampir, so who even knew what he and his magic and his poorly-constructed brain were truly capable of.

He should pay attention. Their hair was loose, beautiful in ways he hadn’t anticipated (hadn’t let himself ponder). Sumi was bending down, and he was surprised that she kissed him, even though that had clearly been her intent, and the part of his brain that wasn’t stunned stupid had expected it. She kissed him, unconcerned of his fangs, of their length, of how easily he could hurt her, even on accident. 

Taka had to physically turn Alucard’s head for him, palm warm on his cheek and jaw, and when he kissed Alucard, Alucard summoned enough of himself to kiss back, hand carefully coming up to Taka’s side, to those precious ribs he’d once injured, when they first met.

But when Taka pulled back, he was once again stunned, useless, limp with confusion on the bed. Fortunately, they did not seem to mind, their hands caressing him, down his wrists, down the dip of his neckline, over the hideous, massive scar on his chest. 

They kissed him more, alternating, and whoever was not at Alucard’s lips was at his neck, his shoulder, the V of his chest. 

Taka took his nightgown off first, kneeling on Alucard’s bed proudly, smiling down at him while Alucard stared, hopeless and speechless. Taka was--Alucard had _known,_ of course, that he was strong, that he was well-muscled and handsome, with fine features. Perhaps if he had allowed himself the indulgence, he would’ve pictured Taka’s cock exactly so. But it was one thing to know a man was beauteous and another to see the naked proof of it, on Alucard’s bed, looking at him like _that._

He startled, realizing Sumi was removing his own nightgown while he gawped, and lifted his arms for her, flushing at her little giggle. How long had his nightgown been bunched about his armpits while she waited for him to look away from Taka?

Taka’s lips pressed to Alucard’s forehead, startling him, an unexpected intimacy. He--that Taka was, fond, of him, that he would press his lips softly to Alucard’s hairline. It was tender.

The fact that Alucard’s nightgowns, when unstrung, were large enough about the neck to completely slip over Sumi’s shoulders and down beneath her breasts was less tender, but no less captivating. He hadn’t seen a woman’s naked breast except for when she had a child using it. The concept had been less than nothing to him, then. Sumi’s breasts were far from nothing to him, now.

“Oh,” he repeated, Taka kissing the side of his face while he stared at her, then his jaw, then neck. She smirked down at him, looking much like she did when she had been tricky during a spar and caught him somewhere unexpected, or stolen blueberries off Taka’s plate.

Satisfied with herself. With--what she’d reduced him to? Was that arrogant of him to wish for, that she would be pleased by him in this state?

She crawled on top of him and he let his hands wander to her, carefully squeezing her ass and caressing her breast, mindful, ever mindful of his claws, of his strength. He couldn’t bear it if he hurt her. He kind of wanted this nightgown the rest of the way off. He’d leave that to her, though.

Taka reclaimed his attention by pressing himself flush against Alucard’s side, and Alucard could feel Taka’s dick press against his hip, hard. Did Alucard cause that? He indulgently slid his fingers into Taka’s hair, feeling the texture, and was kissed again, still heedless of Alucard’s fangs. He felt Sumi shimmy out of her nightgown the rest of the way, and removed his hand so she would have freer movement, but she gripped his wrist and returned his hand to her waist, sliding it back to her rear. She let him squeeze her again, then slide his hand over her thigh, then between her legs.

“Sorry,” Alucard murmured, feeling the slickness there, “If you’d warned me, I would’ve cut my nails.”

They both tensed, and Alucard was about to apologize again when they burst out laughing.

“Alucard!” Taka gasped, “We are doing this _for_ you!”

“Let us take care of you,” Sumi crooned, caressing Alucard’s cheeks and then squishing them.

“I,” Alucard started, stuttered, “would like to reciprocate.”

“Don’t worry,” Taka murmured, his breath hot against Alucard’s ear, his own hand coming up to caress Alucard’s cheek. “We are enjoying ourselves.”

“We want to make you feel good,” Sumi said, her voice gone low again, her body trailing down Alucard’s own, until her mouth pressed kisses to his hip. “Shush,” she ordered softly, “Let us.”

Taka’s hand closed firmly, slowly around Alucard’s cock, and Alucard gasped, head jerking, neck exposed. “That’s it,” Taka praised, his lips then pressing to Alucard’s neck. Alucard’s breathing became ragged.

“Perfect, Alucard,” Sumi praised, her hand caressing the inside of his thigh. She stretched out along his body again, her hand pressing down on his shoulder, against his scar, pinning him sweetly, effortlessly to the bed.

He was quaking. Taka’s hand moved--perfectly, like nothing Alucard had, on his own--he--

“Perfect,” Sumi praised again, lips replacing her hand on his scar, and he felt a tear escape him, not knowing where it came from or why it was there. It was hard to think, as it had been since they’d entered his room, but particularly harder now with what was likely all the blood in his dhampir body located solely in his dick. Which Taka was thumbing at the head of. While Sumi caressed the ugliest part of him, uncaring of the sight of it, heedless of his fangs as she kissed him again.

“Alucard?” she asked, palm to his cheek, feeling the wetness there. Taka paused.

“I am--overwhelmed,” he admitted, and he was at least fairly certain that was the honest answer. He couldn’t be sure, himself.

“Is it a good overwhelmed?” Taka asked, concern in his sweet voice, and Alucard nodded, because he thought so. At the very least, he didn’t want this to stop.

“Good then,” Sumi said, kissing that cheek, while Taka shifted, his face gone low, pressing first a kiss to the inside of Alucard’s thigh, then licking along it. When Alucard glanced down at him, Sumi sucking at his jaw, he was met with a gaze so intense it hardly seemed like lazy-morning Taka could possibly be the one giving it. Alucard’s cock twitched, and he placed his hand gently on Taka’s head, his other used to hold Sumi close to him. 

Alucard was somehow not prepared for Taka to take him into his mouth, his hands leaving their bodies so he could grip the bedsheets, likely tearing them or at the very least puncturing the fabric with his claws. Sumi giggled, smugly delighted, against him, and Taka’s head began to bob.

Alucard wasn’t sure what, precisely, Taka was doing with his tongue, everything was a little fuzzy right then, but he absolutely didn’t want him to stop. He hardly noticed when Sumi took his wrist in hand and pinned it to the pillow near his head, his body gone limp for her, entirely submissive to her control, however much of it she wanted to claim. She bent over him again, breasts hanging attractively, her smile consuming his thoughts, and she pinned his other wrist too.

She kissed him dizzy, and Taka lifted, hands moving Alucard’s thighs, and he let him. Alucard reached the sudden thought that Taka would penetrate him. Alucard wanted very little else so badly as that.

But Taka’s brain was working better than Alucard’s, and seemed to understand that that required lubrication and prep. He pressed his own cock against Alucard’s and took them both in hand, other bracing himself on Alucard’s leg, and thrust against him like that.

It was a parody of what it might be like to get fucked by this beautiful man, but Alucard had his doubts he could handle the real thing just then, anyway. This alone was too much for him, lips pressed to Sumi’s, body jerking with each roll of Taka’s hips. 

“I--” Alucard gasped.

“Yes,” Sumi murmured, hands on his wrists, mouthing his jaw so he might speak.

“I, please,” he begged senselessly.

“Alucard,” Taka gasped, the cadence of his body changing, moving faster, shallower, hand tight where he gripped.

“Taka, Sumi,” he got out, voice raw, strangled.

“Come for us,” Sumi ordered, so gentle and perfect, and what else could Alucard do but obey her?

He lost time, for a moment there. His next awareness was with Taka lying on his arm, their seed cooling against Alucard’s belly. Alucard stared at him a moment, admiring how he looked, sweaty, disheveled, exhausted. Post-orgasm.

“Sumi,” Alucard said, struggling to form the words correctly, turning to her, “you didn’t…”

She huffed and smiled at him, lying on his other arm. “Lie still, Alucard,” she ordered, and half-rolled on top of him, her own hand pressed between her legs. He stared, captivated, not even blinking really, as she touched herself, wrist moving in little jerks, face hidden in Alucard’s shoulder while she rutted up against him, one leg hooked over his own. He caressed her back as she did, toyed with the tips of her hair and dragged his nails, feather-light, against her skin, feeling a pleased thrill at how that made her shiver. When she came, it was long, an ebb and flow then crashing wave that shook her, before she sank off of him limply, breathing hard as well.

He stared at her.

When he woke the next morning, he had no memory of falling asleep. They were under covers which they--hadn’t been. But they were not his regular covers. They were still lying on top of those.

It hadn’t been a dream, or a fantasy, or some dhampir-induced enigma. 

It had actually happened.

“Holy _shit,”_ he whispered to the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments/Concrit give me life


	2. Chapter 2

A morning bird landed on a branch nearby the window, and trilled loudly. It woke both Sumi and Taka, who smiled at each other across Alucard’s chest, then nosed in closer to the man himself.

“Morning,” Sumi greeted, pressing her lips to Alucard’s cool cheek and stretching.

“So last night actually happened,” Alucard said, sounding like he didn’t quite believe it (he was a hard man to read, but they’d gotten better at it, in the time they’d spent with him).

Taka snorted while Sumi giggled. “Did you think it was a dream?” Taka asked.

“Yes,” Alucard answered with the bluntness that so frequently caught them off guard. Sumi trailed her fingers through Alucard’s hair, contemplating this man, who was so frequently guarded, closed off, keeping himself apart and separate and hidden, but was just as frequently dauntingly straightforward, with no sideways words or decorative phrases to cloud and obscure his true meaning. He spoke plain truth or half-worded riddles, with little in between.

Part of that, they realised recently, might just be a matter of culture, or personality. Alucard wasn’t hiding things from them. It was a hard truth for them to accept, harder than lightning in jars being science, not magic, harder than toilets and indoor plumbing, harder than the understanding, some nights, that they had actually escaped. Alucard wasn’t hiding things from them, but he was _private,_ a concept they were learning to differentiate between. He did not like to speak about his past, unless it was mundane, ordinary things about Sypha and Trevor. They knew he loved and honored his mother, and that she was a doctor and a woman of science who believed knowledge should be shared, but anything else about her was painful, to him. He told them the engine was irreparable, not because it truly was, but because he saw trying to repair it as enough of a waste that they would have a net loss on fixing it.

They were learning to navigate him, Sumi thought, pleased with herself, but not for the scheming, vindictive reasons she’d been pleased with when learning to navigate Cho. She simply liked him. Liked being able to trust another soul in this world. Liked knowing it wasn’t just her and Taka, any longer.

“Were we that good?” Sumi teased, giving Alucard’s hair a little tug. He always let her; he let her push and pull and tug and prompt him however she pleased, and came down firmly on very little. It was still novel to her. She enjoyed taking advantage of it. 

“Yes,” Alucard said again, smiling at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back. Seeing him smile was like catching sunlight through the leaves, flickering and beautiful.

“How good?” Taka asked, propping himself up on an elbow and grinning down at Alucard, and Sumi snorted.

“Exceptionally. Directly out of a fantasy,” Alucard praised, honest as he humored Taka’s vanity.

“Oh? You fantasize about us often?” Taka asked, and Sumi felt herself mirroring his cheeky smirk. 

“I--well…” Alucard trailed off, looking away from Taka only to catch Sumi’s grin, looking away from her down the line of his chest, his arms shifting beneath them but unable to cover his face, as their bodies still had him pinned.

“Mmm,” Sumi hummed, pressing her lips to Alucard’s cheek. “We thought about you, too,” she told him, letting him hide his face in her shoulder. How incredible, really, that a half-vampire as composed and impressive as Alucard could be so easily reduced to a blushing, speechless mess.

It hadn’t been like Cho’s court. Giving Alucard pleasure had not been anything like servicing the vampires who used their young bodies this way, since their blood was quite literally not on the table. Pliant and submissive had never before been words Sumi could associate with a vampire, but Alucard had allowed anything and everything they did, limp and star struck (and maybe Sumi was a little vain, too, to think such things). He wanted to reciprocate, which was not part of the script, and all through last night he had been so… _careful_ with them. Sumi knew for a fact that the first time he’d even touched his claws to her was when he skimmed them, barely there, over the skin of her back at the very, very end. He was careful with his fangs, never let them so much as nick either one of them, didn’t demand a single thing.

She pet his hair while he attempted to compose himself against her chest. Taka leaned over him, unusually playful for having just woken up, and tugged on Alucard’s hair. “What kind of fantasies did you have?” he prodded, and Sumi snorted.

Alucard made a garbled noise and she flat out laughed, hugging him a little tighter. It wasn’t that they’d thought Alucard would hurt them, far from it, just that they were very used to sex of a highly specific nature, and they… had to relearn what it could be, outside of that environment. Sure, they’d touched each other, in the year and handful of months it had taken to reach this place, but they’d always been on even ground, familiar with one another. Two ex-slaves lying together, when they knew each others’ bodies so intimately already, was naturally going to be different than those same ex-slaves fucking their half-vampire tutor. Their half-vampire friend.

“Well, I think whatever fantasies we come out of next should involve more dicks inside of me,” Sumi stated and Alucard actually choked. 

“I agree,” Taka stated, body draped on top of Alucard’s so the two of them could grin at each other. “I also think the fantasy should have more lubrication, and feature more of Alucard’s rear.”

Alucard made a strangled, prolonged noise and Sumi laughed, patting his head. “Taka, I think we broke him.”

“Should we add that to the list of things that can immobilize vampires?” Taka joked along, giving Alucard’s cheek a poke.

“I have _no_ idea what I’m going to do with you two,” Alucard protested mildly, face still firmly pressed into Sumi’s shoulder.

“Well, you _could_ make us breakfast,” Taka suggested. Alucard grabbed him about the waist and rolled onto his back, taking Taka with him. 

“And why would I do that when I have such lovely reasons to stay in right here in bed?”

“If I had known that this was all it took to get you to stop waking us up so early, I would have come here on the second night,” Taka stated, and Alucard chuckled in that shallow, breathy way of his that meant he was genuinely happy.

“Well, this reason needs to empty her bladder,” Sumi said, reluctantly pulling herself out from under the warm blankets and throwing her discarded nightgown on.

“Hm, I suppose that it’s up to you then, Taka. Food, or a lazy morning?” Alucard asked, sounding his usual composed self, if the contented version. 

“This is a cruel choice to give me,” Taka complained, Alucard’s door silent as it opened.

“Life is full of tough decisions,” Alucard said patiently, and when Sumi glanced back, she saw him curling in around Taka, smiling and pressed up against his side.

It was a little odd, moving through the castle without Taka astride her or a few silent paces behind. Even in Cho’s court, they were almost never separated. He’d been taken from his family a little less than a year after she’d been taken from hers, and they were each other’s peers. The only real and true friends they’d had, all their lives (there was a reason they were so comfortable working in tandem, in the bedroom), and in this last year especially, he’d almost never been out of her sight, and never more than just a few paces away, hiding behind the trees to cover her, or on the other side of the market square chatting with a vendor. 

But there was nothing to threaten him, in this place. They were isolated from the rest of humanity, that sought to harm and use them. They were alone in these woods, with only Alucard, who treated them with delicacy, like they were _precious._ Sumi used the toilet, marvelled, as she was wont to do, at the water system that carried her waste away, washed her hands, and then went out onto one of the many balconies, enjoying the spring air. The brief solitude. She did not want to remain alone long; being away from Taka made her antsy, no matter how safe they were, here, but it was nice, to lean against the cool stone of the guardrail, to feel the morning breeze dance about her bare legs, through her uncombed hair. 

The mental image of her returning to Alucard’s bedroom, only to find him bent over Taka’s body, blood in the sheets, Taka’s throat open and eyes wide and empty, came to her unbidden, and she tried to shake the thought. Alucard was kind. He would not hurt them, either of them. He was good to them, she reminded herself as she reentered the castle and walked quickly down the hall. He was _sweet._

Soft, she thought, opening the bedroom door and smiling to find both men still tangled up together. Gentle, indulgent, oddly shy. Alucard was many things, none of them cruel.

“Oh now we really must get up. If Sumi gets back into bed we’ll all be here until noon,” Alucard said, and Taka gripped one of his arms.

“Nooo,” he protested quietly, and Sumi laughed again. She climbed on top of them both, smirking down with her chin against her layered hands.

“I say we make our vampire slave carry us to the kitchen,” she joked, and Alucard huffed.

“I suppose it would be one way to keep you wrapped up in blankets and my arms,” Alucard agreed thoughtfully, and Taka arched an eyebrow.

It still felt risky, no matter how many times they played this game. Sumi acting well above herself, making pushy, insistent demands to see if Alucard would acquiesce. He’d never gotten angry. He almost always played along.

He played along this time, too, lifting himself and both of them with a mighty groan, gathering them both up in blankets and carrying them, one in each arm. It was hard for them to find a good place to grip for balance, but they worked it out, all three of them laughing and Sumi’s heart warm and bright. 

He cooked breakfast for them, Sumi contentedly bundled up in her blanket, Taka _only_ bundled in his blanket, and dealing with her sneakily dragging her foot up his bare calf. 

“So what…” Alucard asked as he sat at the table, setting their plates in front of them, _”happened_ last night?”

“We conducted an enigmatic ritual,” Taka said, mock-serious, as he lifted his fork, “In this language, I think it is called ‘having sex.’”

Alucard chuckled, and Sumi cocked her head thoughtfully. “Yes, I know that. But I am confused as to why, and what it means.”

“What it means?” Sumi repeated.

“Yes, are we,” Alucard seemed at a loss for words, a moment, “in a romantic relationship?”

Sumi looked to Taka, and found him to be just as confused as she was. “Would you like us to be?” Sumi asked, trying to keep her face and voice neutral.

They hadn’t considered such a thing. Well, thought about it, sure. Alucard was beautiful, and kind, and gentle, but he was also half-vampire and they were going to go back to Japan at some point. It didn’t make much sense to form a romantic relationship with someone they’d eventually separate from, and they’d never needed anyone but each other. But, well. Alucard was… Alucard. And if he wanted such a thing, Sumi herself wouldn’t be opposed, necessarily.

She didn’t know why sex would be the thing that brought about this conversation, but she was hardly against it.

“I think I would,” Alucard admitted quietly. Sumi looked to Taka again, and he nodded, just a bit.

“We might like it, too,” Sumi said, reaching out and touching Alucard’s hand with her own, Taka on Alucard’s other side doing the same. 

“Even if it cannot be forever, it could be nice for now,” Taka agreed, giving Alucard’s hand a squeeze. 

Alucard looked to him, then to Sumi, and then smiled downward, and Sumi did like it when he smiled so. 

“Alright then,” Alucard said.

\--

Alucard’s skin was almost always cool to the touch. Sumi had noticed it, when she shoved her way into his space and he had never once shoved back. He held himself at a distance, sure, but he hadn’t ever stopped them from approaching him, touching him. His hands were like stones from a riverbed, not cold, just cool. His arms, his cheeks, wherever Sumi touched him, he was always that way. Even when fighting, he kept that low temperature. He hadn’t been so cool the night before, though, heat coming at the cost of his composure.

It was that unprecedented warmth--not that Alucard had been hot, just warm--that Sumi found herself lingering on, when her thoughts drifted. She was curled up against Alucard’s side on the couch, again, his cool arm draped very carefully, very cautiously over her belly. He’d never done that before, as near as she could tell. He’d always rested his arm along the couch’s back, his own book propped open between the fingers of his other hand. But now, there it was. That cool hand. That odd shyness, when he placed it over her, how he was hesitant and slow.

He surely wasn’t scared of them. They were vampire hunters, yes, but he was The Alucard, and besides, he always beat them when they sparred. Sure, Sumi and Taka had grabbed a pair of tools that would give them an advantage against a vampire, but even then their victory would be far from assured. And they liked him! Neither of them wanted to cause him any harm, and ideally their playing and returned friendliness had been able to prove as much to Alucard. So he couldn’t possibly be scared of them. He was just… shy. 

Easily flustered. Easily flushed. She stroked her thumb gently over the back of his hand before flipping the page of her book. She wondered if she’d ever been like that, when she was younger and inexperienced. And Alucard _was_ inexperienced, there was no doubting that. But what he lacked in knowledge he’d more than made up for in sweetness. He kissed tenderly, carefully, never touching his fangs to either of their mouths, his hands on their bodies had been caresses, his voice had gone completely wrecked in a way she _liked._ And he’d been so genuine, through all of it.

It was hard to look that kind of honesty in the face. Especially in bed. She’d also never kissed another person’s neck as much as she’d kissed Alucard’s, due to aforementioned difficulty with looking directly at him (like the sun) as well as vampires tending to be touchy about their necks.

There was, Sumi was slowly realizing, a lot that she and Taka probably didn’t know about human sexual experiences. And “regular” sexual experiences. And regular experiences. Of course, they’d learned plenty about that on the road here, nearly every jackass between Japan and Wallachia sniffing them out and surrounding them like night creatures around children. Humans, as it turned out, could also be cruel. 

And vampires, at least this one, could be kind. Could be sweet, and hesitant, and link sex to romance. Had he even seen it as a service? That was an interesting thought. After talking about his loneliness, after discussing his bravery at confronting his own father, and more than that, after witnessing the wing of this castle that he’d been raised in, Taka and Sumi had agreed that Alucard deserved a reward. For fighting and killing Dracula, who had, in all those family paintings, seemed an ideal father, if crazed and murderous at the end. For living here all on his own, guarding two graves far from anyone. For staying so gentle, even after everything he’d been through.

Sumi and Taka had not stayed so gentle. They’d yearned for Cho’s death as long as they had hated her, had massacred her thralls, and killed countless humans before they, themselves, could be killed. They had grown steeped in hatred and blood, and their lives since had been violent and cruel. That they could now be here, be _happy,_ that was Alucard’s doing.

He deserved so much.

He deserved to be loved; did they love him? Sumi could, she thought. She easily could. She might, even, already. She wished she knew a little more about love, about what it felt like. She knew she loved Taka, but she’d loved Taka all her life. Loving someone new was--challenging, so far, to navigate.

She liked him, she knew. Her relationship with him was different than her relationships had been with the other slaves of Cho’s court. But how much of that could be love, and how much of that was the simple fact that she and Taka were not being pit against Alucard for who would survive another day, and who would be tortured or eaten by Cho? If she hadn’t been forced into an unfair and stacked competition with them, would she have felt the same for them as she did for Alucard? Was the fact that he was teaching them an influence, something that made her admire him, and that admiration felt like love?

Who was to say, who could know? She admired Taka, and that was part of loving him. They were a team, a unit, so they’d never been at odds. She was friends with Taka, friends with Alucard, but she’d been friends with the other slaves, too, in the quiet hours when they were allowed to exist without scrutiny, without having their every word and action judged and weighed against each other’s. 

And here came a thought: Did Alucard love them? Was that what this meant? Or was he confused like she was? That seemed less likely. He was composed, and knew so much. Knew more about the way the world worked than they did. It was hard to picture him being confused, though she knew he sometimes was, knew the little downward quirk in his brow and lips, the way his eyes drifted to the lower left. 

And he’d fantasized about them, did his fantasies involve being in love with them, too?

She could barely focus on her book.

\--

“So,” Taka said, the two of them having excused themselves down into the Belmont hold again, which Alucard had a strange half-aversion to, “what do we think about Alucard?”

“I think I could not read any of my book today,” Sumi grumbled, glaring at the counterbalancing rock like they might sink faster if she stared hard enough, “because his hand was on my belly and I kept on thinking about how cool he is to touch, and how warm he was last night. I think he is beautiful and kind and shy, for all that a half vampire should have no business being shy. I think that he smells nice and that he is a good cook.”

“I also think those things,” Taka agreed, leaning on the guardrail and scratching at his cheek. “But I was more referring to the fact that we are now in a romantic relationship with him, and did not intend to be, as near as I can tell.”

“I meant it when I said that I might like it.”

“I did too.”

“But you are right, I did not expect it. I feel flustered and off-balance.”

“Like Alucard was last night?” Taka teased, and she shared a laugh with him. 

“I do not think I have ever been with someone who has less experience than I do,” Sumi commented, lifting the gate and securing the lift to its post. “It was nice, not just to be the one working, but to be the one in control.”

“I think that is the first time I have _ever_ had control during sex,” Taka remarked.

“You’ve had control when we--” Sumi started, but then thought. She tried to come up with an example, a single time in which she had not been in the lead, between the two of them. “Huh. I suppose it was a first time for both of you, last night,” she said smugly, grinning at him, and he hipchecked her as he grinned back. 

They began flipping idly through the index. Their excuse to go find an adjacent book to the ones they were reading wouldn’t hold if they didn’t actually come back with a book.

“Do we love him?” Sumi asked, rather abruptly.

“That is what I was asking you,” Taka stated, eyes wandering over the words before him, not really reading any of them.

“And now I am the one who is asking.”

Taka was quiet, a long moment.

“We could,” he said. “I might already.”

“I think I might too.”

\--

Having talked about it at length with Taka, down in the hold, as they searched for a suitable match to their excuse, Sumi’s head felt clearer. Her vision was less cluttered, and she felt assured of herself. 

It still left the matter of what they should _do_ open, but Sumi was not dancing around under pretenses. They were going to love this strange, pale man; it was only a question of how.

Now it was their turn, to be the inexperienced ones.

But Alucard was making his own attempts, in the following days. Sumi believed it would be a stretch to say he was taking the lead, in any manner, because as near as she could tell that was simply something Alucard did not do. But he was hovering on the edge of their space less, she noticed sharply and pretty much immediately. He would approach them, linger close to their bodies, a breath away from touching, and when Taka or she would take his hand or lean into him, he would return the grip or wrap an arm around their shoulders or waist or some similar thing. He came back from the river with three fish and a small handful of flowers, which he handed to Sumi, much to her delight. He indulged Taka in the mornings, picking him up and carrying him to the kitchen instead of insisting he walk there himself. 

He was chattier, too. Not by a great deal, but still noticeably so. Alucard had spoken freely only about things pertaining to their training, to what he was teaching them, before. He would speak haltingly about Trevor and Sypha, and very little about his own life. Now, though, he was telling them more about himself, letting them in.

He still did not speak about his parents directly, but he spoke on how he had lived, here in this castle as a child. He pointed at the long handrails of the main staircase and told them how he would slide down them, first with legs and hands straddling each side, then sitting on his rear, then finally standing on bare and chalked feet. Sumi naturally had to insist that the three of them try it, and when Alucard tried to laugh it off she jabbed at him, asking him if he was afraid their balance would prove better than his, now that he was out of practice. In the end, none of them fell, and they indulged themselves in a mild competition of increasingly silly flips and stunts.

In sparring, Sumi got frustrated with her inability to get close, again, and teasingly asked Alucard if he just liked it when the two of them chased him. He revealed, smiling fondly with his sword pointed down, that playing chase had in fact been his favorite game as a child. That the castle halls had given him plenty of corners to duck around and the vast collections had given him much to hide, giggling, behind. It was hard to imagine Alucard giggling, particularly when he lifted his sword and charged them again. But she liked it when he smiled, his little fangs poking out over his lip, so Sumi decided to take advantage of their sword-locked proximity and kiss his pretty mouth.

“Oh, we _definitely_ have to add that to our list of ways to defeat a vampire,” Taka remarked. The two of them stared, grinning with delighted pride, as Alucard leaned on a tree and tried to compose himself, face buried in his hand, sword discarded on the grass beside him.

During lunch one day, Alucard told them that he’d grown up nocturnal, so he was still getting used to seeing high noon. They shared, in turn, that as part of Cho’s human branch, they’d frequently been tasked with standing guard during the day, when the thralls could not, so daylight was associated with tension, fatigue, and hunger. Alucard had been the one to reach out his hands and take theirs, all on his own, that time, and offer reassurance. They shared soft smiles with each other, then focused on him, squeezing his hands in return.

They bedded him a few more times, always the two of them going to his room and initiating. Alucard kept his claws on his right hand short, claiming that if he needed to carve any runes into any old and damaged artifacts he could do so well enough left-handed. He grew bolder each time, touchier, tugging gently on their hair so he might coax them into kisses and urging the two of them on when they did things that he liked.

Sex didn’t feel like a service, anymore. It felt good and sweet and warm, like with each other, but now Alucard included. When he confessed that he’d never laid with anyone before them, they tried very hard not to laugh when they told him they knew. 

“Was I that bad?” Alucard asked, blushing and hiding his face in Taka’s shoulder.

“Not bad,” Sumi corrected, cuddled up against his back, her palm pressed to his warm belly, “inexperienced.”

“Which was surprising, but not unwelcome,” Taka said with a nod, petting Alucard’s golden hair.

“Surprising?”

“You’re beautiful,” Sumi and Taka stated in the same breath, making Alucard tense.

“You are kind, and sweet, and gentle,” Sumi added, dragging her hand up Alucard’s belly, to his diaphragm, then back down.

“That no one else would seek you out before us was not something we had considered,” Taka stated, raising his hand and watching Alucard’s shimmering hair slip between and off his fingers. 

“I hadn’t had many opportunities to pursue--this,” Alucard admitted, and Sumi was beginning to recognize the tone he took when he was intentionally opening up about his past to them. “I grew up very fast, and spent most of my years in study. Sypha and Trevor were the first peers I had in my adult life I might have courted, but they are…”

“We see,” Sumi said, gently taking the need to finish his sentence from him. She did not think he liked to talk on how his friends left. If the dolls were any indication (and where had those things gone?), Alucard missed them with deep grief.

Alucard was quiet a moment, then said, “I mean it literally: I grew up fast. I aged in a very short amount of time. Now I wonder if I will ever age again.”

Taka and Sumi looked at each other over his head, neither knowing quite what to say. Sumi nuzzled against the back of Alucard’s neck, thinking.

“Thank you for sharing this with us,” she decided on eventually, feeling it was right.

\--

The first time Alucard sought out a sexual encounter, he approached Sumi about it. They were in the observatory, Taka at the massive telescope, Sumi lying on the nearby couch with her head in Alucard’s lap. They were discussing how agriculture and sailing were both dependent on astronomers, who in turn, depended on the agriculturists and sailors. 

The conversation lulled, and Sumi simply let herself feel pleased, with Alucard’s cool hand against her cheek, the gentle skritching of Taka making notes about his observations sounding softly in the large space.

“May I kiss you?” Alucard asked, and Sumi opened her eyes to find him staring down at her. 

She smiled, lifting herself up onto her elbows and then swinging her legs off the armrest, spinning in place. “Whenever you like,” she answered, leaning into Alucard’s space and waiting. 

He caressed her jaw, first, fingers skimming carefully over her skin, and ever so gently coaxed her closer while he slowly bent. She felt their noses touch, slide, the wisps of his hair brushing against her forehead and the top of her cheekbone. He kissed her slowly, lips soft and shy, somehow more shy now that he was the one who had initiated. She set her hand on his thigh, warm from pillowing her head there, and enjoyed the way his fingers slid along her jaw, up into her hair. Her other hand found his free wrist, and slid up along his arm, until her palm rested on his shoulder, fingers digging into the white fabric of his shirt. He returned her touch with a light palm resting on her waist, seemingly focusing far more on the gentle movement of his lips against hers, the way her teeth ghosted along his lower lip.

He tugged her hair out of her low ponytail, making her hum.

“I think I have just spotted a more interesting sight to observe,” Taka teased, rolling up his star chart and fastening the string. He lifted the scroll to his eye, like a telescope, and Alucard and Sumi chuckled.

“We are quite beautiful, don’t you think?” Sumi asked, sliding her arms around Alucard’s neck and pressing them cheek to cheek, one leg thrown over his lap. She liked how his hand slid down the small of her back, how his fingers reflexively squeezed ever so slightly into her hip.

“I do. I simply must learn what will happen, as the night progresses,” he joked, referencing the rotation of the stars they were allegedly studying that night.

“I would like to take you both back to my room, if you’re agreeable,” Alucard said, and Sumi turned her head to kiss his cheek.

“Of course we are agreeable,” Taka said, closing his notebook and putting away the remainder of his supplies. 

“I wouldn’t presume.”

“You _never_ presume,” Sumi said with a roll of her eyes, but then turned Alucard’s face by the chin to look at her. “Why don’t you?” He knew them well enough by now, didn’t he? It wasn’t like the two of them didn’t make their own fair share of presumptions.

Alucard looked at her, then up at Taka, who had approached, then down and away. “I am… cold.”

Sumi glanced to Taka, who was also confused. Great, more riddles. They could do this though. “We don’t understand,” Sumi stated, prompting him. So what if he was cold? She rather liked his cool hands.

“I am an icy well,” Alucard said, as though reciting from memory. “And I swallow up any warmth dropped into me; bottomlessly.”

Ah. He wasn’t talking about physical warmth. But that still didn’t make any sense, because, “Alucard, you are the kindest person we know.” She turned his face gently back to her, staring at his yellow eyes. “You are warm to us,” she told him, “You warm our hearts with yours.”

Alucard stared at her, saying nothing, and it was so hard to understand what he was thinking, when he stared at them in this way. Taka settled himself on the couch behind him, arms circling Alucard’s waist.

“And I, for one, know for a fact you are not bottomless,” he teased, startling a laugh out of Alucard. “And I would even go so far as to call your bottom _hot.”_

“Taka, that…” Alucard protested mildly, still laughing, but he dropped his head to Sumi’s shoulder and the laughter morphed. He wasn’t quite crying (although he was much more inclined to do so than any vampire they’d ever encountered), but Sumi kissed at the side of his face and pet his hair anyway. Taka pressed a kiss to Alucard’s spine and rested his head on his back, arms tight around Alucard’s belly. 

He lifted her, pulled her onto his lap, and turned and kissed Taka, bolder than he usually was. “I would very much like to bring you two to my bedroom, now,” he informed them, something pleasant shivering in Sumi’s lower belly at his tone. 

“I would like to be brought there,” Sumi told him, holding him about the neck again, and he carried her effortlessly, smiling as he stood. He led Taka by the hand, astronomy forgotten, and diligently set about the task of getting Sumi out of her clothes the moment he set her on the bed.

She kissed him as he worked on her pants, and she felt Taka run a hand over her back before pressing up behind her. He cupped her breasts in his hands, and Alucard’s eyes inevitably anchored there when the kiss broke.

She rolled her shoulders back, chest pressed forward, and Taka rolled her nipples between thumbs and forefingers. “You really like them, don’t you?”

“They are very nice,” Alucard said, already red and they’d only just started. He still didn’t press his face to them on his own, but that was fine. He’d done a very good job of taking some initiative, that night, she could take care of him now. She was more than happy to grip him by the hair and guide his face between her breasts, humming as Taka squeezed them. She kicked her pants the rest of the way off her ankles and brought her knees up around Alucard’s hips.

“I think this is a very nice position,” she commented, and Taka pressed a kiss to her neck. She lifted the hand not in Alucard’s hair to pull Taka’s out of his ponytail, and left her hand back there, her head tilted to the side. “I think Alucard should fuck me while we’re like this.”

“And my pants still on?” Taka protested mildly.

“It could be fun,” Alucard remarked, “to make you wait for something for once.”

“Oooo,” Sumi teased, “sounds like someone is still mad at you for sticking your fingers in the batter.”

“But the batter tastes so good!” Taka whined, as Alucard lowered his way down Sumi’s belly, leaving kisses as he went, and pressed his face between her legs. She bit her lower lip, chest heaving as she caught feel of Alucard’s tongue.

He hadn’t eaten her out before. Then again, it was a slow process, getting him actually involved and not just a passive participant in the bedroom. She also hadn’t had much expectation for this to happen, given that the only person to ever eat her out was Taka.

He was so careful with his fangs. Hesitant and uncertain. She directed him, as best she could, encouraging and praising him when he did something she liked. He liked to be praised, she knew. Both her boys did.

And wasn’t that a warm thought, that they were hers. Her boys. Her Taka, her Alucard.

“Alucard,” she said, tugging on his hair and noting how her voice had gone all breathy, “take your pants off.”

Taka made a token noise of protest and she groaned when he bit down on her shoulder. It felt really good, actually.

She guided Alucard up, and then into her, head thrown back as he penetrated her, slow and careful and sweet. Taka held her, one hand splayed over her belly, the other holding her about the ribs. She hung her arms around Alucard’s shoulders, dragging him into another kiss as she adjusted.

“Move for me,” she ordered, “Start slow.”

He did, bracing his weight on the mattress and caressing her hip. “Good,” Taka praised behind her. “Stick your tongue in her mouth, she likes that,” he reminded him and Sumi grinned, then stuck her own tongue out and waggled it. Alucard kissed her, sliding his tongue into her mouth, and she returned in kind. She liked tonguing along his fangs, not the tips but the flats of them, still somehow amazed by their size. She grabbed Alucard’s hand and guided it up to her breast, and hummed encouragingly into his mouth when he squeezed it. She had both of their saliva on her chin, and did not mind at all.

She moaned when he thrust a little harder, and nodded. “Go,” she breathed, and Alucard went faster, heavier. His cock filled her so well, the stretch not burning, but pleasant. The way he looked, so vulnerable and eager and still a little gobsmacked, would never get old, nor would the gentle way he fondled her breast, like she was a treasure.

Taka mouthed at her skin, a warm and steady presence at her back, and then Alucard rode up against the place inside her that made her nerves light up.

“There!” she gasped, head thrown back, arms tighter around Alucard’s shoulders. “Keep going, please,” she ordered, and Alucard nodded, moving faster.

“If you do shorter, shallow thrusts, it works better,” Taka advised, the hand on her belly reaching down and circling his middle finger around her clitoris. She whined and arched up into it, squeezing around Alucard’s dick. 

“My good boys,” she praised, Taka groping at her other breast, her tits feeling swollen and her lower body pooling fire. “So good to me.”

“May I--inside you?” Alucard asked, and she laughed.

“Come inside me,” she gasped, toes curling against the bedding and bringing Alucard in to kiss her again. She jerked, her orgasm coming first in a rolling wave, then crashing down on her intensely, arms, knees, and pussy all squeezing around Alucard in a vicegrip. Taka rubbed her all through it, and Alucard did indeed come inside her. He pulled out, slow and careful, and Taka whined at the sight.

“You get so many good views tonight, Taka,” Sumi teased, and then the idea struck her on how they might make him feel good as well.

She wriggled down, bringing Alucard to her side, and pried Taka’s cock free from his pants. He was hard and leaking, and she pressed a kiss to the shaft, staring up at him with a heavy gaze. 

“Alucard, come here.” She brought his face in next to hers, his eyes on Taka’s dick, and at her affirmative nod he pressed a kiss to the shaft, like she had, and she licked at his cockhead.

“Maybe there is merit to the idea that good things come to those who wait,” Taka remarked, the joke not coming off half so flippant, given how flushed and sweaty he was, his voice strangled. In response, Sumi nosed into his pubes and hummed, her mouth pressed to the base of his cock. 

“Fuck!” 

“Alucard, hold his hips down,” Sumi ordered, threading her fingers with Taka’s. “Now seal your lips around the head and suck,” she guided, but Alucard hesitated, looking uncomfortable.

“My fangs,” he said, and Taka made a noise of agreement.

“Alright, just use your tongue then. Lick a strip up from the bottom to the tip.” She watched, enjoying the view _plenty_ herself, and she’d already come. “Perfect, Alucard. Do it again.” She joined him, starting to lick when he was at the tip, and Taka’s breathing was _ruined._ They kept at it, Alucard keeping Taka’s squirming to a minimum, his fingers tight where he held her hand.

She lifted her eyes to his, making sure he was watching. At the end of her next lick, she--fangless creature that she was--sealed her lips around his cockhead and _sucked._ He cried out, coming instantly, and she was grateful that Alucard was pinning him because he probably would have bucked into her mouth otherwise. She swallowed once, but waited until he was done to open her mouth and stick out her tongue, showing off the white mess.

“Ew, Sumi!” Taka protested, playfully pawing at her face. 

‘It’s your spunk!” Sumi returned, Alucard laughing quietly at their antics as he crawled up and flopped down on the bed next to Taka. Sumi cuddled in as well on Taka’s other side, making kissy noises and getting close to his face. Alucard got the blanket over them, but, as was his way, fell asleep very quickly. Despite their rowdy noisemaking! And he slept like the dead; they could start a screaming match and he still probably wouldn’t wake until morning.

The two of them stared at him fondly, a long moment. It was hard to believe that this was the same man she’d been so wary of, at the start. It was hard to think that she had ever had visions of him tearing their throats out. Hard to remember why she had been so spooked by the swift and silent way he moved, that she had distrusted his intentions when he made offers and sweetly did things for them. 

And if there had ever been any doubt that she loved him, there was no doubt left in her now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look I love my girl Sypha more than any other character (except Issac) but she did my boy dirty with that icy well monologue


End file.
